"I am now," she replied. "After your short discussion with Professor Babbling about the school rules, I asked her why she did not already know that. She, apparently, had no idea the rules were even written down.
"That led me to coming up here and checking the booklists. Though I guess I should not have been, I was surprised to see the book was... as you just pointed out... not included in them.
"It will be back on them for next year. Actually, I'll be putting it on the booklists for every Year for next year."
"Thank you," he said. "That saves me having to convince you to do it. For your information, though, my research a couple years ago identified Dumbledore had removed it from the booklists about two years after he first became Headmaster. That was about 1957. That's why Professor Babbling, who didn't attend her own first year until well after then, did not know it was supposed to be there.
"I do recommend, though, you alert Obscurus Books, the publisher of the text, you'll be putting it on the booklist and that you'll be needing about four hundred copies. As very few now even know about the text, I don't think they've been publishing all that many over the years."
"Well reasoned, Lord Potter," she replied. "I shall do just that."
"My next point," he said. "I seem to have lost my auror detail. Except for one, that is. Is there something I need to know about that?"
She smirked back and replied, "You have and have not. You still have aurors watching after you. However, now it's the entire school."
Harry gave a snort and muttered, "Disillusioned."
"Possibly," she murmured. "I will neither confirm nor deny that supposition."
Again he gave a snort. "Next, Alliance Secret time. Two points."
"Go on," she said.
"First, Heir Longbottom has informed me about the negotiations for the BA and CBA between his father, Madam Bones and Mister Abbott. He expects that negotiation will be completed by the end of the weekend. Later, I advised him to request access to the Lords' Quarters direct from you. He was hesitant, but I told him that all you would tell him if he couldn't have said access was 'No'; and it didn't hurt to ask. I think I've convinced him enough."
"Well done," she said. "For your information, Lord Longbottom has already been in contact with me to inform me he, Madam Bones and Mister Abbott will be visiting the school tomorrow afternoon. There's little doubt as to why."
"No, I guess not," he replied.
"Next?" she asked.
"Ah! Secondly, I have already been approached by Heiress Greengrass on behalf of her father to float the idea of a CBA between her and I. From that, I have contacted my Law-wizard of Record, Ted Tonks, to act as my negotiator for this; and Lord Greengrass that I was open to the suggestion and he should contact Ted if Ted had not already contacted him.
"Yesterday, Law-wizard Tonks sent me a modified standard Concubine Bond Agreement and asked me to list down what other changes I wanted. I sent that back to him last night."
"Good," she firmly stated. "The news of Heiress Greengrass the elder entering concubinage will take a lot of pressure off Samuel."
"That's why I'm willing to go through with this," he agreed. "However, I've told Ted it's a deal breaker if the Agreement does not include easy, no-penalty escape clauses out the whazoo."
Leaning forward a little she stared directly at him and asked, "And what if she falls pregnant? Will the escape clauses still be in effect?"
"Hell no!" he blurted. Calming a little he added, "That is, escape clauses may still be there, but different ones that are a great deal harder to execute. The easy ones included are there for if nothing... ummm... physical happens between us. They're for if she's uncomfortable with concubinage, after all."
She sat back and stared at him for a few moments as her face relaxed to a smile.
Eventually, she said, "You're an amazing young man, Lord Potter. I very much doubt there would be many who would be so kind."
Harry blushed and had to look away. He shrugged and said, "I can help. But that doesn't mean I can... will... take advantage of the situation. It wouldn't be right."
Looking back, he said, "It doesn't even matter to me that Greengrass is an allianced House; but, it certainly helps."
"Indeed," she smiled.
"Oh," he said. "I think this is going to happen pretty quickly. Do I have your advanced permission, with Lord Greengrass's permission once this is done, to ask Heiress Greengrass to move into that third bedroom of my Lord's Quarters?"
"Of course," she replied. "That is, after all, why I warned you of that third bedroom."
"Ummm... yeah," he softly said. He'd temporarily forgotten that. His embarrassment made him forget.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After meeting up with Hermione as she came out of the Arithmancy classroom, Harry asked her how it went.
"Mar-vellous," she smiled. "Arithmancy is my favourite subject."
"Good," he replied. "She wasn't too upset with you for missing the first class on Monday?"
"No," she replied. "Monday was just an overview of what was planned for the year. Daphne gave me a copy of her notes. She's about on par with me when it comes to taking notes in the class."
"Anything you need to do now before we return to the Lords' Quarters?" he asked.
"Just assignments and I need to copy Daphne's notes so I can give hers back to her," she replied. "But, we can do that in the apartment."
"Then, let's return to the apartment and continue with getting assignments out of the way," he suggested. "Though 'fake' Harry didn't care, 'real' Harry really doesn't like the idea of having assignments hanging over his head over the weekend."
She smiled back and said, "I really like this part of the 'real' Harry.
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